Without any destructive ordnance, the HAVOC squad was held up at the door long enough for Lilliana and Regan to head deeper into the operations side of the casino, and set up some smaller inconveniences along the way. The whole time they were in flight, Lilliana kept looking for an escape route, but she felt in her stomach that it was hopeless.
They were in a building inside a dome on a space station; emergency exits would only take them out of the building, leaving them still inside The Meadows and within the security cordon. In point of fact, those exits only served as additional access points for those who were pursuing them… knowing this, Lilliana consistently veered away from anything that seemed to lead outside, extending the chase slightly but at the cost of increasingly restricting their freedom of movement.
Finally, the pair found themselves out of doors, out of choices, and out of room to run, in a room that was barely more than a walk-in maintenance closet, with shelves of cleaning supplies and small service robots. The only up side that Lilliana could see was that it was far enough within the secure part of the building that it didn’t seem to have any sensors or cameras within it; that was a small comfort considering they could easily have been tracked going into it.
Lilliana fried the door’s lock. The only other exit from the room was a maintenance hatch set in the ceiling, too high for them to reach and awfully narrow looking, besides.
“We’re stuck now,” Lilliana said. “No chance of even calling for help… all communications get routed through the base’s system, and it’s just rejecting my requests. We’re on our own.”
“Right,” Regan said, looking around. “I’ll start makin’ the bombs, ya get those vacubots jump-started an’ ready to carry ‘em.”
“I don’t know how to reprogram a robot, Bard,” Lilliana said. “Without proper instructions, they’d probably just go back to their charging bays.”
“Right,” Regan said. “So, I’ll start makin’ bombs, while ya cover us up with an illusion…”
“My magical talent’s more theory than power,” Lilliana said. “I need something to work with.”
“Well, then, I’ll just start makin’ bombs,” Regan said, and she went to the shelves and started grabbing cannisters of chemicals. “Brilliant choice leadin’ us here, The Gypsy. This’ll be a lot easier than blowin’ up a linen closet. Did I ever tell ya the story of how I escaped the prison on Rhana B, armed only with a three pillowcases an’ a towel?”
“No, Bard, you haven’t,” Lilliana said.
“Let me tell ya, the towel was right useless, it was,” Regan said. “Don’t even know why I bothered with havin’ it. The pillowcases, though… they were a different story. Speakin’ o’ different stories, did I ever tell you the story o’ how brought antibiotics to…”
“Bombs versus stunners,” Lilliana said to herself, ignoring Regan’s ramblings. “If they didn’t have us outnumbered and surrounded and the fight was happening on neutral ground, that would almost be a fair fight.”
“Are ya sure they’re usin’ stunners?” Regan asked her.
“Yeah… call it a feeling,” Lilliana said, rubbing her numb arm, which was only just beginning to come back to life.
“Damn,” Regan said. “It’s hard to face the bullets when the other side’s not usin’ any. Oh, well. Some’ve faced worse odds than this an’ still managed to go out in a blaze o’ glory. I’m sure we’ll find a way.”
“I’d rather not,” Lilliana said.
“Beats goin’ out in the rain,” Regan said. “Look, Gypsy Rose… you know, all that talk from The Bastard about how ya… well, y’know. I just want to say…”
“Save it, Bard,” Lilliana said. “I know what I am. It’s kept me alive through some insane times. I can say that it was necessary… I’ve survived everything life’s thrown at me, and I’m not going to apologize for that. If somebody wants to call me a coward, let them. I don’t need you telling me I’m not.”
“Oh, I was never after sayin’ ya weren’t,” Regan said. “I was gonna say ya have a nice arse.”
Lilliana gave her a sardonic smile.
“Bard… I know I yell sometimes,” she said.
“Yeah, now that ya mention it, I’ve noticed that, too,” Regan said.
“What I’m trying to say is, I’ve come to appreciate your presence on the ship,” Lilliana said. “And not just in fights…”
“Hol’ on,” Regan said. She undid the clasp on her cape, then started pulling off her mail shirt.
“Regan… why are you taking off your clothes?”
“This suit thing’s all kinds of useful, but it takes forever an’ a day to get off,” Regan said. “Best let me start now or we’ll never get to the good bits.”
“Good bits?”
“The good bits,” Regan repeated. “Ya’re about to put out, aren’t ya?”
“No,” Lilliana said. “I was about to tell you that you’re my friend, you jerk.”
“Oh, well, fuck that,” Regan said. “If we’re about to die, the least ya could do is blow me.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” Lilliana said. “If we do die, I’ll give you anything you want.”
“Alright, but I intend to hold ya to that,” Regan said.
“Fine… just don’t go blowing us up to hasten thing along,” Lilliana said.
“Talk about goin’ to yer reward, like,” Regan said.
“I don’t know how you can think about sex at a time like this, anyway.”
“It speaks to my basic sense of fairness,” Regan said.
“Fairness? How?”
“Ya always figure if somethin’ bad happens, somethin’ good’ll come along an’ balance it out,” Regan said. “But when you hit the end o’ the line, that’s it. It’s over. Any account left unpaid is forfeit. So, if I’m about to get royally fucked, like, I should have a chance to fuck royally at the same time.”
“It would be nice if things worked that way, but nobody ever said life is fair,” Lilliana said.
“Course not,” Regan said. “Fairness is a human concept, an’ it’s up to us great blunderin’ apes to impose it on an unfair universe. That’s why I think we ought to do our part an’ screw while the screwin’s good. An’ believe me, it will be good.”
“Nobody wants to die less than I do,” Lilliana said. “But not wanting to die doesn’t mean that anybody owes you pussy. If you don’t like that, you can wait for the universe to turn fair and throw some at you.”
“Sure, pass the buck,” Regan said. She pulled her chainmail back on and refastened her cape. “Ah, well… back to Plan X.”
“Plan X?” Lilliana asked.
“For ‘explosive’,” Regan said.
“That begins with an E,” Lilliana said.
“I think I know how to spell ‘explosive’, The Gypsy,” Regan said. She scowled at the shelves. All the products on them where in locally produced in-house brands. “Now come over here, an’ tell me which of these jugs looks the ammoniaiest to ya.”
“Regan… I didn’t ask for a lot of technical qualifications when I hired you,” Lilliana said. “But do you, or do you not, actually know how to…”
The rest of the question was cut off as the hatch in the ceiling flew open and Leo landed… feet-first… on top of Regan. She crumpled to the ground beneath him.
“I think ya missed yer cue there, ya big pussy,” she said weakly.
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